Getting your rental deposit back: deadlines, deductions and rights

Moving out should mean money coming back. In Switzerland the rules are clear, yet many tenants wait longer than necessary or accept deductions they do not owe. Here is what the law says and how to get your deposit back in full.

The one-year rule

Your deposit sits in a bank account in your name (Art. 257e of the Swiss Code of Obligations). The bank releases it only with both parties’ consent, on a payment order or a court ruling. Para. 3 adds the deadline that matters for you: if the landlord has not asserted a claim against you by legal means – debt enforcement or court proceedings – within one year after the end of the lease, you can demand the refund from the bank alone. The landlord cannot simply sit on the money.

What a landlord may deduct

• Damage beyond normal wear and tear: a burn mark in the parquet, a cracked basin, holes well beyond the usual picture hooks.
• Unpaid rent and service charges, including the final heating and ancillary cost settlement.
• Cleaning, if you hand the flat back dirty and the report says so.

What a landlord may not deduct

• Normal wear and tear: faded paint, small scuffs, a carpet that has simply aged. Living in a flat is what the rent pays for.
• The full replacement price of old items. Deductions follow the age-depreciated value according to the joint lifespan table used by the tenant and landlord associations. A carpet with a lifespan of ten years that is eight years old is worth only a fifth of its price, whatever it costs new. A wall painted twelve years ago is written off completely.
• Defects not recorded in the handover report. If something is missing from the report, the landlord has a hard time proving it was you.

The handover report is everything

The move-out report is compared with the move-in report. Anything recorded when you moved in cannot be charged to you now. Go through every room, read before you sign, and never sign a blank form that the property manager fills in later. If you disagree with an entry, note your objection next to it.

Step by step to your refund

• 1. Joint handover. Clean, empty flat, all keys, both parties present or a person with written authority.
• 2. Sign the report and keep a copy, with photos of every disputed point.
• 3. The bank’s release form. The landlord signs the form confirming that there are no claims, or stating the agreed amount. The bank pays out the rest within days.
• 4. If the landlord refuses: ask for the claim in writing with evidence. If it is unfounded, you can wait: after one year without legal proceedings the bank releases the money on your request alone. Or go to the conciliation authority in rental matters, which is free of charge and settles most cases without a court.

And with a deposit guarantee?

With a Swisscautionen24 certificate instead of a bank deposit the process is shorter: no money waits at a bank. After the handover the landlord confirms the release and the certificate ends. If the landlord has a recognised claim – acknowledged by you, agreed in conciliation or decided by a court – Swisscautionen24 pays it and recovers the amount from you afterwards. The guarantee secures the landlord; it does not make unjustified claims disappear, so the handover report matters just as much.

Deposit still blocked at the bank from your old flat? See how to release it, or find more answers in the help centre.